Residents displaced by fire in Palatine apartment building

About 20 people were displaced after a fire damaged parts of a Palatine apartment building Saturday morning, authorities said.

Firefighters were called 6:03 a.m. to the building on the 800 block of Panorama Drive. The first crews arrived about four minutes later and found a fire on a second-story balcony of the two-story, eight-unit apartment building.

Firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze from both outside the building and inside the second floor.

By 6:39 a.m., the fire was declared under control, but crews remained on the scene to ventilate smoke and fire gases from the building.

The fire caused significant damage to several apartments, and the entire building was deemed uninhabitable, authorities said. The American Red Cross also was called to the building to help find housing for displaced residents.

No firefighters were injured, but three people were assessed by paramedics and did not need to be taken to a hospital, authorities said.

Investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire, authorities said, but believe it was accidental.

Estimates of the cost of the damage were not immediately available Saturday night.